In the Sky This Month

The planet Saturn appears near the Moon in the wee hours of tomorrow morning. It stands to the upper left of the Moon at first light, and looks like a bright golden star.

Centaurus wheels low across the south on June nights. Much of the constellation stays below the horizon. The brightest star in Centaurus that’s visible from most of the United States is Menkent, a name that means “shoulder of the centaur.”

One of the most brilliant stars is a dominant presence from late spring through autumn. Vega is the fifth-brightest star in the night sky. It is about a third of the way up in the east-northeast at nightfall now, and climbs high overhead later on.

The year’s earliest sunrises in the northern hemisphere occur over the next few days. The date varies by latitude, with southern locations getting that extra sunlight first. The longest day of the year is the summer solstice, June 21.

The Moon is just a day past full tonight, so it overpowers the fainter stars. But some bright stars shine through. Among them are the points of the Summer Triangle, Vega, Deneb, and Altair, which are in the east and northeast as twilight fades.

Antares, the heart of the scorpion, is close to the full Moon tonight. Antares is one of the most colorful stars in the night sky, shining reddish orange. The color indicates that its surface temperature is much lower than the temperature of the yellow Sun.

The Moon will be full tomorrow night. It’s the Flower Moon, Rose Moon, or Strawberry Moon. But it also can be called the Short-Night Moon. It puts in one of the shortest appearances of any full Moon of the year. Only July’s Moon will surpass its brevity, although not by much.

The planet Mars will pass directly across M44, the Beehive Cluster, over the next couple of nights. They are a third of the way up the western sky at nightfall, to the upper left of Venus, the Evening Star. Mars looks like a fairly bright orange star.

The Moon is passing through the constellation Virgo tonight, with its leading light, Spica, close to the Moon’s upper right. A beautiful galaxy, the Sombrero, is about the same distance to the lower right of Spica. It’s an easy target for telescopes.

The Moon stands near the middle of the largest member of the zodiac tonight, the constellation Virgo. Spica, its brightest star, is close to the Moon at nightfall, and the Moon will slide even closer to it during the night.